Cadbury sued over "misleading " Snapple drink ads
Mumbai: A man from New York has sued Cadbury Schweppes Plc, for alleged mislabeling of certain products, including its Snapple juice and tea drinks, as "all natural" when they were not.

Hemant Mehta has filed a in the Manhattan federal court, alleging that the drinks contained high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and "other non-natural products," and moved a class action suit against the company.

Mehta, who is seeking to represent all people who bought certain Cadbury Schweppes and Snapple drinks over the last six years, has accused the company of misleading consumers about the main ingredients in juice and tea drinks.

Mehta has sought damages of at least $100 million. He cited the company's advertisement ", "Made from the best stuff on Earth" to bring home his point.

"HFCS does not exist in nature and is not 'minimally processed,"' the complaint said. "Describing HFCS as an 'all natural' ingredient is deceptive and unfair to consumers and competitors," he said.

A Cadbury Schweppes representative was not immediately available for comment.

Cadbury Schweppes Plc, based in the UK, is the world's largest confectionary manufacturer.
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Corporates sign UN charter on carbon emissions reduction
Mumbai: Over 150 companies, including drug makers Novartis and Pfizer and mining giants Anglo American and Rio Tinto, have pledged to reduce carbon emissions from their operations in a voluntary pact.

Airbus, Coca-Cola, home furnishing major IKEA and luxury goods specialist LVMH were also among the 153 firms who committed themselves to greater energy efficiency.

Top environmentalists welcomed the companies' promise to undertake "practical actions" to reduce their contribution to global warming, despite the lack of binding targets and urged governments also to do more to confront climate change.

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said he hoped more of the 3,000 businesses, which have signed up to a United Nations corporate responsibility drive, would also adopt the measure.

Among business majors that opted not to sign the UN Global Compact are banks UBS and Credit Suisse; clothing retailers Nike, Hennes & Mauritz and Gap; oil company Royal Dutch Shell; mining group BHP Billiton; and coffee company Starbucks.

Meanwhile, the chief executives of Coca-Cola, Levi Strauss, Lackeby Water Group, Nestle, SABMiller and Suez launched a "CEO Water Mandate" project to help companies better manage water use throughout their supply chains and help avoid a global water crisis. (Read more)
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Murdoch, Dow Jones yet to strike deal; US magnate named possible bidder
Mumbai: Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and business newswire Dow Jones & Co. have refuted media reports that the two sides have successfully completed their talks and have reached an agreement.

The Business, a London-based magazine had reported that Dow Jones had accepted Murdoch's original $5 billion, $60-a-share offer and that a deal was expected to be announced next week, citing unnamed sources acting for the Dow Jones board.

A News Corp. spokesman said "the company is unaware of the truth or otherwise of the report in the British magazine."

Dow Jones and News Corp. have been engaged in due diligence for more than a week. People on both sides of the negotiations say the process has been smooth, with an agreement on price possible soon, according to the report.

Investors were expecting a sweetened offer from Murdoch to clinch a deal. Dow Jones said the report about an agreement in principle was incorrect.

"There is no change in the status of the discussions currently underway," a spokesman for the Bancroft family said. "News Corp. is continuing to conduct due diligence and the negotiations are not complete."

Meanwhile quoting a media report on Sunday, MarketWatch, owned by The Wall Street Journal, the flagship of Dow Jones, reported that even as negotiations with News Corp. move closer to an overall agreement, Dow Jones is making one last effort to find other possible buyers for itself and named California supermarket magnate Ron Burkle as a possible new bidder.

Burkle has expressed interest in teaming with Dow Jones's union to find alternatives to News Corp.'s bid.

Murdoch has made an unsolicited $5 billion offer to buy the publisher of The Wall Street Journal newspaper. The offer valued Dow Jones at a 65 per cent premium to its stock price before the bid was disclosed publicly in May. (Read more)
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Fast Retailing eyes global markets with a $900 million offer for Barneys
Mumbai: Fast Retailing's $900 million bid for Barneys New York Inc would be a major step forward to founder Tadashi Yanai's goal to more than double the clothier's group annual revenue to 1 trillion yen.

Fast Retailing Co, the operator of Uniqlo Co. casual clothing chain, has announced it proposed to buy all the shares in Barneys in a rival bid to Istithmar, a Dubai government-affiliated investment company.

Jones Apparel Group Inc., which owns the US luxury department store chain, had agreed to sell it to Istithmar for about $820 million on June 22. The agreement, however, allows Jones to consider third-party proposals until July 22.

Tokyo-based Fast Retailing has a war-chest of $1.3 billion and the acquisition would be its biggest to date. The company has been holding back since the company gave up on a bid for Hong Kong's Giordano International last year.

It is uncertain whether Jones will accept Fast Retailing's bid because it would have to pay $20.6 million (about 2.5 billion yen) in damages for breach of contract with Istithmar. (Read more)
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